Love Nest
by timewaster123456789
Summary: Renji and Hisagi were just trying to do the right thing, the lesser of two evils. They ended up in the nest of maggots. There is pain that can make you wish for death but where death isn't an option there are fates worse than both.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I own nothing. A reworked version of the horror piece I wrote for my duel with SalazarMarvolo, she won so go read her piece 'Dulce et Decorum est', it's objectively better ;). Not fluff despite the title, if you're looking for that go elsewhere. Thanks to SesshomaruFreak for judging. Pre-manga. I plan to make this a two-shot, unfortunately the horror doesn't show up until the second part.**

**Warnings: Non-graphic prison rape, gratuitous death and violence. Future chapters will have more warnings.**

* * *

"….You are to select a detail and form a task force with Hisagi-fukutaichou to deal with the uprising by any means necessary," Byakuya concluded the morning's assignments.

Renji nodded, "Yes taichou." The uprising had been a problem for a while and though he didn't look forward to raising his sword against Rukon citizens, they had been doing a surprising amount of damage. He flash-stepped away to gather his detail and was soon outside the ninth barracks.

"Hey you ready?" he asked.

"Always," Hisagi smiled grimly. They moved out and quickly arrived at the recently discovered rebel 'base'.

"Don't look like much does it?" Renji asked as he observed the cluster of three abandoned slums around a small, dusty 'training ground'.

"No," Hisagi replied quietly.

Renji sighed, "Let's go."

They approached stealthily hoping for more capture than kill, they'd both been very firm about that to their respective groups. Since the two lieutenants were taking point they were the first to see the gaunt 'rebels' receiving gruel from a communal pot in the grounds. Whole families including young children lined up for their serving, most with rough wooden bowls they'd likely carved themselves. Renji signaled a halt and Hisagi did the same.

They crouched silently in the shadows, watching and listening.

"We're running out," an emaciated woman said quietly to the man who'd been ladling out the food. He was slight of build even without the clear signs of hunger and had a graying ponytail tied high on his head.

"I know," he said. "We'll raid the stores by the end of the week."

"That's a suicide mission," she whispered back.

"You got a better idea?" the man snapped. The woman hung her head, tears slowly rolling down her face. The man closed his eyes and embraced her. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Renji's heart broke as he remembered his days starving on the streets with Rukia and their long dead friends. He glanced at Hisagi and saw pain etched across his face, as one they called a retreat and followed their details until they were almost a mile away.

"Hold here, we're gonna make a diplomatic approach," Hisagi ordered. Snickers and bad jokes greeted his announcement but of course they obeyed. Hisagi and he returned alone and walked straight into the common ground, hands in the air. Immediately they were surrounded by swords with emaciated men on the other end.

"We want to talk to your leader," Hisagi explained calmly. Renji was unsurprised to see the man from before step forward and wave his men's swords down, his own held ready at his side.

"Yer Shinigami," he stated. When they didn't answer he continued. "Shouldn't ya' be killin' us?" Renji fought a smile, the guy had some fight in him.

Hisagi shook his head, "We were sent to end the rebellion." He continued quickly when the man tried to interrupt, "But that doesn't necessarily mean killing."

"We won't give up," the man replied, his voice hard.

"Because you'll starve, so what difference does it make how you die?" Renji guessed, except that it wasn't really a guess.

The man didn't respond, but his eyes burned with anger.

"If we could get you food, would you lay down your arms?" Renji asked. From the corner of his eye he could see the men's hands shaking on their swords under faces filled with hope.

"An' the others?" the man snarled, gesturing at the Rukon in general.

"Baby steps?" Hisagi offered with a sheepish smile. The man glared at them, looked around at his 'forces' and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again it looked like he'd aged ten years. He nodded, "_If_ you bring food for my people."

Renji grinned, "Consider it done!" The circle of men around them separated and they walked out untouched.

"How exactly are you planning to do that?" Hisagi whispered.

Renji exhaled with relief and shrugged, "I'll figure it out."

Hisagi sighed but when Renji looked at him, he was grinning too.

Two weeks later Renji and his fellow lieutenant trudged through the Rukon streets. They were dressed in peasant clothes and hauling a heavily loaded cart. It had been surprisingly simple—if technically illegal—to acquire the supplies from the surplus stores. Renji felt neither guilt nor fear it was just a bit of food and overstock at that, it wasn't like they were doing anything that would hurt their own. Besides it was the only thing that the rebels wanted. There was no need to kill people who were merely trying to fight for their lives and neither he nor Hisagi had any desire to do so.

Besides it was really unlikely they'd be caught and so they arrived back at the rebels compound. Hisagi knocked on the door to the supply building, hissed the password their contact had given them, and waited for it to open. They slipped in and it shut quickly behind them.

Wordlessly they began doling out the food that would buy peace. The women hard-worn and thin, but carrying whatever weapons they could scavenge, wept as they unloaded crates of food. The young men cheered and slapped the lieutenants on the back before going to help the women.

The leader of the group—their contact had named him Amaya-san—moved over to them with a warrior's grace, he carried himself with the kind of pride that came from having nothing else left.

"Thank ya," he said quietly.

"Thank _you_ for keeping things calm," Renji replied. Tears came to Amaya's hard eyes and he lowered his gaze in gratitude.

"Thank ya' fer keeping yer word," he replied his voice choked with emotion. "I'm honored to know ya," he continued with surprising formality.

"Back at ya'. I'm Renji by the way, this is Shuuhei."

The man's eyes widened but all he said was, "Amaya."

"Well good to meet you," Hisagi said. With a smile he shook Amaya's hand, Renji did the same.

Amaya had just opened his mouth to reply when the twilight of the warehouse was suddenly filled with spirit energy.

"Howl Zabi-" Renji began before finding himself bound in a weak but effective bakudo. He struggled, completely immobile as shouts echoed around and blood sprayed from the swords of the punishment squad as they tore into the rebels. Renji watched in horror as Rukon citizens, people who'd only wanted a fair shake and to not be hungry fell around him screaming. Some of the rebels were bound in bakudo and members of second squad calmly executed them where they stood.

The handful that managed to escape both bakudo and blade were chased by flash-stepping Shinigami. The screams that followed announced most of had failed to escape. Renji looked over to see tears falling freely down Hisagi cheeks, he'd never seen lieutenant cry before. He tried to blink back his own, he wanted nothing more than to beat the hell out of their attackers but the bakudo prevented him from anything.

Soi-fon walked up to Renji and sighed.

"You're an idiot," she slapped him across the face. Renji glared fire at her, wishing he could kill her on the spot. He struggled to move, speak anything and felt Hisagi doing the same.

"You would commit treason for a bunch of rag piles?" she snarled bitterly and slapped him again. They were marched out of the warehouse with twenty guards each. Kaname was among Hisagi's escort and watched him with hard eyes.

"A traitor in my own squad" Kaname spat ruthlessly disappointment dripping from the words.

They were dragged back to Seireitei and tossed into a pair of cells in the basement of C46 to 'await trial' whenever that would be. Renji settled back against the wall of his cage with a sigh of relief that the bakudo was gone. Hisagi paced the opposing cell, face twisted with rage.

"How long ya' think we'll be stuck here?" Renji asked idly to break the incessant tak-tak of Hisagi's steps.

"Til' Byakuya springs you and I get tossed in the Maggots' Nest," he snarled.

"Aw it ain't that bad no way they'll find us guilty of anything serious," Renji said. He was fully aware that Byakuya would let him rot there if the law said it was just.

"Have you ever been to a c46 trial?" Hisagi asked.

Renji paled, "Surely it's not..."

"It's treason Ren. We're fucked."

Renji shut up at that, maybe Hisagi was wrong...maybe. If not well, at least they wouldn't be alone.

By the time the day of the trial actually arrived they were both almost out of their minds with boredom. Renji was almost grateful to the second squad escort that clapped on his handcuffs and marched him out, closely followed by Hisagi with his own escort.

They walked the short distance from the cells up to the main chamber of C46 and were led to the bench for defendants.

Renji had expected as a defendant that he'd be able to…well, defend himself and proudly stepped up to the witness stand.

He stated his name and rank on request and then the questioning began. It was short and harsher than any battle he'd ever been in.

"Did you steal food from the stores reserved for Shinigami?"

"Yes but…"

"Please contain your answers to the questions asked. Did you then give the food to known enemies of the Gotei 13?"

"Yes but our ord…"

"Please contain your answers!" the questioner roared. "I have no more questions."

The speaker of C46 gave him leave and his escort led him from the stand.

"You're not listening we only…" a shock of kido hit him. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.

Renji's woke to find himself on the floor of his cell. A few minutes later Hisagi was thrown bodily in with him, cursing wildly. Renji helped his friend to his feet and for all the anger and rage, what stood out to him was the barely veiled horror in Hisagi's expression.

"What?"

"They gave us five years for 'aiding the enemy'," Hisagi snarled.

"The fuck? Look someone can just explain. We followed our orders."

Hisagi shook his head, "They don't care."

They were moved to the maggots nest the next day.

A detail of second squad members arrived, opened the doors to their cells, hand cuffed them again and led them on a short walk to the mouth of the cave known as the nest of maggots. The whole thing seemed surreal to him, a collection of events with no real sensation or emotional impact. It felt like it was all happening to someone else and he was trapped in a sort of numb disbelief.

"Enjoy it. This is the last fresh air you'll get for a long time," The Hound sneered, Hisagi snarled back a wordless noise of defiance. Renji was just stunned, he knew The Hound, not well, but he'd had beers with the master tracker and they'd gotten along well enough. The man's words dripped hate and venom now.

They marched down the rocky tunnel and The Hound and another man Renji didn't know, tossed him to the dirt floor, Hisagi landed with thud and puff of dust next to him. The handcuffs hadn't let him break his fall and he felt blood welling on his scraped chin as he struggled to his feet. The massive gate clanged shut behind them and a moment passed as they picked themselves up and a second gate ahead of them rose laboriously. He felt nervous sweat beading on his face and saw Hisagi wasn't doing much better, but they walked with their heads high into the well-lit cavern of the nest itself.

"Hell," Hisagi breathed. Renji nodded silently. Hours passed and fear of the unknown wore off until they were both more bored than anything else. He took to playing little games with Hisagi on boards drawn in the dirt. It wasn't exactly fun but it was better than staring off into space. Some time later a loud metallic sound filled the cavern, echoing at a volume that made Renji grind his teeth in anger.

"What the fuck!" he yelled and looked around to find the source of the noise. A steel hatch in the high stone ceiling opened and boxes dropped through to bounce off the floor below.

Two of the larger prisoners walked over and broke open the boxes and began doling out their contents with obvious favoritism. They were close to Jidanbo's size and Hisagi and Renji approached cautiously, the larger smiled at Renji and took a deep sniff. Renji instinctively edged away, they reminded him of some of the assholes he'd known in his Rukon days. Hisagi had an identical reaction.

"Don't be scared. I liiike ya'" the larger said with a toothy smile.

"I'm not fucking scared," Renji snarled as he stepped up to receive three small parcels. The prisoner got in his personal space and sniffed him again as he handed them over. Renji noticed a dangerous, predatory light in his eyes.

"Ey back off yer' being weird," Renji said with a forced laugh and the pair laughed with him.

"Yer funny," one said, with a sick smile. Renji learned later that he was nicknamed King Kong. He never knew the man's real name.

"S'Nice," the other, Onoda replied and ran a hand down Renji's back. He leaped away reaching for Zabimaru before remembering that his precious sword had been taken.

"What the fuck?" he roared as Hisagi stepped between them. The pair just laughed.

"Move it!" King Kong yelled. Hisagi looked back, Renji followed his gaze from the corner of his eye and saw the others shifting, fists clenched with impatience. Hisagi grabbed his sleeve and led him away.

"What the fuck man?" he hissed.

"We're gonna be here a long time, there's no reason to piss _everyone_ off at the same time," Hisagi explained.

"Easy for you to say. They weren't sniffing around you like dogs in a meat shop," he snarled but followed anyway. Hisagi had a point even if he didn't want to agree.

"Why'd you get three?" Hisagi asked, trying to break the tension as they settled on their 'sleep ledges', mere rocky protrusions from the cave wall.

"Dunno," Renji replied, handing Hisagi one of the food bars. He had a very bad feeling about it though.

X

Through unspoken agreement, Renji and he slept in shifts. They were constantly bored but otherwise it wasn't so bad. They would often spar hand to hand with each other as well as some of the others to just to have something to do. The only real difficulty was that King Kong and his cronies wouldn't stop harassing Renji. By breakfast of the next day Renji'd had enough and slugged one of them.

A stunned hush fell over the nest before both giants and a few of their smaller lackeys dove on him. Hisagi leaped into the fray and they fought tooth and nail, but they had almost no chance without swords or kido. The last thing Hisagi saw before a massive fist hit him was Renji borne down by King Kong and two of his followers.

Hisagi's eyes flickered open and he found himself staring at the dirt on the floor of their cage. Gritting his teeth with determination he forced himself to his feet and carried Renji back to his ledge before surreptitiously nursing his own wounds.

That night when Hisagi stood to drag himself to the food line Renji didn't follow. He looked at his old friend questioningly but Renji just shook his head.

"I'm not putting up with that shit."

Hisagi nodded his understanding and went to the line. When he returned he split his food bar in half and handed Renji a piece.

Again Renji shook his head, "Ain't even enough for you, much less two of us."

"Eat. You need your strength if we're gonna kick their asses." Hisagi said and Renji smiled, taking the piece of bar.

"Fair point."

So they developed a pattern as soon as they healed they would be back in the food line, Renji would take issues with the King crew's behavior and an embarrassingly one-sided fight would ensue. After the third time Renji looked up at him, one eye swollen shut.

"It's my fight you don't need to keep getting involved."

"Moron," Hisagi replied and felt his split lip open again, Renji gave a sad smile.

It quickly became obviously that they weren't going to fight their way out of the problem, if anything they were growing weaker with hunger.

One morning Hisagi woke on his sleep ledge to find Renji digging with his bare hands in the dirt floor. Hisagi jumped in to help and dug furiously with him.

Renji grunted in pain, Hisagi looked up to see him stop and take his hands out of the small hole. Hisagi looked in to see a plate of metal maybe eight inches down. They spent the next few hours making test hole before, nails bleeding they resigned themselves to the fact that the whole cave floor was metal covered in dirt.

That night looking at Renji on the next ledge Hisagi noticed how dejected he looked and forced a smile.

"We'll figure something else out."

"Of course!" Renji replied and he didn't sound anywhere near as bad as he looked. They tried to form another plan but weeks went by and they came up blank. Renji would join the foodline a couple of times a week. He always made his displeasure clear, but he didn't start anymore fights. It wasn't doing anything but weakening them and with it their hope to escape if the chance came.

A fight between King Kong and Onoda was the first thing to break since they arrived. They watched the show, fascinated by the pair's sheer ability to take damage. Blocking appeared to be an uncommon skill. He and Renji stared like they were watching a prize fight and some of the other captives began betting rations on the outcome. King Kong dodged some of Onoda's head shots as he was slightly faster than the other, but most he took as though they were slaps while hammering home body blow after body blow that Onoda likewise barely seemed to notice.

King Kong caught a powerful right hook to the jaw but took little more notice of it than a mosquito and countered with an uppercut to Onoda's stomach. Onoda doubled over and King slammed his massive knee into the man's face. Onoda dropped to his knees, head bowed in submission and that quickly the fight was over.

"Damn," Renji said as King Kong wiped blood from his mouth and Onoda nursed his broken nose.

"Yeah," Hisagi replied. He saw a dark light in Renji's eyes and as one they fell on Onoda, kicking the crap out of the wounded man in an attempt to rid themselves of at least one threat. Dishonorable as it was they had few options. Hisagi gagged as his robe pulled tight against his throat. King Kong hurled him against the wall and Renji struck next to him as he slid to the floor. The monster had only needed one hand each. Stunned Hisagi shook his head clear and tried to figure out why King had helped a guy he'd just been beating the shit out of himself.

He never did figure it out.

A week or two after that—time blurred in the nest with no night/day cycle—Hisagi woke to Renji's rough screams. His eyes shot open and he was on his feet, hand reaching for the blade he no longer wore. Cursing, he rushed into the middle of the cavern bare handed, only to be trapped as Onoda and another of King Kong's goons seized his arms and held him back.

He fought for all he was worth, harder than he had in his life. His elbows swung sharp and powerful, feet scrabbled for purchase. He gave up on that and simply lashed out with his feet but he couldn't reach his captors with anything but the awkward tail end of strikes. Most of the power of his attacks was lost thanks to the angle, range and lack of any way to plant his feet.

He struggled bitterly anyway, bleeding from a dozen small scrapes and cuts, but with no sword and his kido locked there wasn't much he could do against two bastards twice his size.

Despite his best efforts he found himself held almost immobile, head swimming from the blows he'd received. Renji screamed again and he heard his friend choking back sobs. He closed his eyes, strained against the monsters that held him down, preventing him from going to Renji's aid. He willed himself to break free and assist Renji. It didn't help.

He couldn't do jack shit and the monster finished with its depravities untouched. One of the bastards holding him down simply left and Hisagi instantly snapped back to life, straining to get free again. He managed to surprise his remaining captor with his strength but gained nothing but a few feet of ground and a punch to the face as King Kong came to help his lackey. Despite his exhaustion and concussion, he continued to struggle to the best of his ability. He should care enough to break free, he should try harder but he simply couldn't. Worthless.

He could do little more than struggle futilely with rising nausea as the King crew ran a train on his best friend. By the time the last one was done there were tears running from Hisagi's closed eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: The second half of this piece. Warnings: all of them…every warning, non-graphic rape, attempted suicide, violence, Stockholm syndrome, desensitization...

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When it was finally over, they released him and Hisagi struggled to his feet and limped over to embrace Renji. The other shook his head no and Hisagi let his arms drop watching as Renji curled into a ball on his sleep ledge. He vowed that he would kill those bastards at the first opportunity. Even if he had to be a coward and do it in their sleep, he would for Renji. He watched his friend shake facing the wall, trying and failing to silence sobs. Yeah he would definitely kill them, no questions asked.

The problem was that one of King's crew always kept watch.

They'd faced worse though and when Renji woke, one look at the rage blazing in his eyes was all Hisagi needed. As one they turned and threw themselves at his tormentors, putting all their hakudo to use. He felt a crack as his fist broke Onoda's nose, then his own head exploded in pain and he fell to the ground.

His eyes flickered open and he found himself lying in the dirt of the nest's floor. Frantically he looked around for Renji and found him sitting on the sleep ledge. Hisagi rushed to him, head throbbing. Renji had his arms wrapped around his knees and Hisagi tried not to notice the trail of blood dripping down his ankle.

"We'll get em man," Hisagi whispered fiercely. He reminded himself again that they'd faced tougher opponents before.

Renji looked up at him and nodded but he was shaking all over and Hisagi knew he'd have to heal before they made another serious attempt at killing his tormentors.

Renji wasn't given a chance to heal though. The next day his screams rang through the nest as everyone except Hisagi tried to pretend nothing was happening and Hisagi fought the laughing King crew again to no avail.

After two more failed attempts over the following weeks Hisagi tried to come up with a new strategy but Renji simply shook his head, eyes haunted.

"You know I'd fight til my last dyin' breath if there was a point. Ain't fraid to die. But they won't fuckin' kill me is the problem and I…"

Hisagi nodded understanding the unspoken portion. 'I can't keep taking the punishment'. They were 'gentler' when Renji 'behaved'. It wasn't much of a difference if his screams were anything to go by but he could see easily enough that Renji was terrified of the thought of being punished again.

He understood, didn't look down on his old friend. Everyone had their breaking point after all and Hisagi wasn't the one who'd have to pay if they failed again. He tried quietly, slowly to gather some of the others, surely they weren't the only ones who wanted to get rid of King's crew. Unfortunately the others were just happy that they weren't the focus of the attention and one of them—he had no idea which— must have told King Kong.

Hisagi was set upon and beaten as he ate lunch, they held Renji back though he struggled admirably, fighting harder than he had in months. He was in no shape to help though and when they let him go, all he could do was carry Hisagi back to the ledge to sleep it off.

Hisagi didn't leave the ledge for three days and from what he could tell from brief flashes of consciousness neither did Renji. He stayed by his side, brought water, tried and failed to get him to eat and was generally a better friend than Hisagi deserved.

From the blood he coughed, Hisagi could tell that he must have some sort of internal bleeding and he knew without a sliver of doubt or care that he was dying. At least he didn't care until he remembered that it would mean leaving Renji alone with those sick fucks. When he remembered through the haze of pain and delirium, he tried to will himself to recover, though he grew weaker by the day.

"No, Renji don't," he whispered on the third day.

Renji ignored him, his defiant eyes gleaming with tears of fear as he hit the button to signal for a medical emergency.

The act had been expressly forbidden by King Kong and Renji had barely turned back to face the cave when he was tackled by two of King's men. Hisagi didn't try to help, though he truly wished to die for the betrayal. Renji had willingly accepted the price to get him help. He couldn't get himself killed after that. Especially since there was nothing he could do.

The healer took nearly an hour to arrive but as soon as the gate buzzer sounded, the goons cut Renji's punishment short. Hisagi saw from where he was lying, his friend on the dirt floor barely conscious himself, covered in bruises, blood yet again.

The medic knelt beside him and Hisagi winced as the Shinigami rested his hands none-too-gently on his wounds. Before he fell into the healing trance Hisagi grabbed the medic's shihakusho and levered himself up, almost passing out from the pain.

"You need to…get Renji out…King Kong he's…he's gonna kill 'im," he whispered fiercely, fighting for breath. The medic shrugged.

"It's the nest, things happen."

"He's rapin' 'im," Hisagi snapped a little too loudly.

"Shouldn't have landed yerselves in here then," the medic replied with a Rukon accent. Hisagi fell into the trance, his blood boiling with hate and wondering what Unohana would do to that piece of shit if she knew. As well wonder what god would do for all the chance there was of the either finding out.

When he woke later and his head cleared he realized that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The medic had worn a second division insignia.

"I'm sorry," was the first thing Hisagi said when he woke.

"You tried, I'm sorry I put ya' in that spot," Renji replied shakily.

"We'll get out of here," Hisagi tried to sound certain even though he didn't really believe it. Renji shook his head.

"No we won't. They won't let us be Shinigami 'gain. Is goin' back to the streets really 'out'?"

Hisagi hadn't thought about that before and his face twisted in horror before he could hide it.

"I'm sorry," Renji said his voice strong again. He raised his wrist to his mouth and began chewing, sawing on it.

Hisagi knew what he was doing. He didn't try to stop it and didn't blame him. If he was honest with himself he was almost relieved. He hated listening to those screams, even now when Renji was used to it and bit it back as best he could. If anything that was worse. He was pretty sure those screams were literally driving him insane. Maybe Renji would find peace this way, there would be none for him. He'd hear the screams forever.

As it was they were both denied their reprieve. One of the King Crew dragged Renji away. Renji cursed his attacker to the nine hells before the screaming started again and Hisagi covered his ears for a moment before dragging himself into another one-sided and futile fight.

A few months later Renji risked trying again and again he was caught. There wasn't much in the way of options to accomplish his goal and the ones Renji found were bloody and time consuming. He had little chance of ever getting away with it. He never tried again.

The years sloughed by and over time Hisagi's struggles ceased and he would lay restrained with his eyes squeezed shut. Afterwards he would watch as Renji wept and feel nothing. He would see the black eyes, and blood and wonder, why did the idiot resist. Eventually they stopped trying to restrain him assuming that he'd no longer fight.

They were right, he knew it was pointless they'd just stop him. Besides he'd be risking his life to prevent something that'd happened a hundred of times, what difference would it make?

X

One night King Kong stroked Renji's mane after his 'turn' and Renji almost cried, ridiculously pleased by the gesture. King Kong looked down at him and his expression softened a hair. After that he began using it as a reward and somehow that morphed into something that King Kong just did on occasion.

One day Onoda approached him and he tensed bracing for the next attack. Onoda liked to 'soften' him with a beating first, even if he hadn't done anything to provoke Onoda. King stepped between them and stared Onoda down silently.

"Move over," Onoda snarled impatient. "It's my turn."

King shook his head 'no'.

"I ain't askin' 'gain," Onoda snarled. King uncrossed his arms, ready for combat. Onoda glared but backed down and walked away still glaring and muttering.

Then King turned and knelt to pet Renji. Renji was disgusted to find that he'd instinctively pressed himself against King's legs, cowering like a whipped dog during the exchange. Yet he couldn't bring himself to pull away from the touch. He wasn't sure if it was fear of what King Kong would do or something else. He wasn't sure which would be worse.

King-sama became gentler after that and refused to let anyone else near him. A few months after King-sama claimed him as his exclusive property Renji realized that he no longer wept when he serviced his master. Ironically he'd sobbed over _that_, mourning the loss of who he'd been. King-sama held him and years of ingrained habit meant the thought of even attempting to move out of the embrace never crossed his mind.

X

Sui-Feng came to announce the former lieutenants' release, five years to the day after they had been locked away. She was shocked to see Renji, cowering against King's side, his face a mask of terror as a low keening whine emitted from his throat. She hid a winced. Hisagi rose from his sleep ledge and approached her, without so much as a glance at his former friend.

"I'm not gonna wait all day you're free if ya want to be," she offered. Renji continued to cower, unmoving.

The king crew glared at her but she ignored it, they hated her but had learned not to do anything about it. Hisagi accepted his release papers as she fended off the others howling to join him. Renji was silent beside his master but continued to watch her fearfully. She led Hisagi out and smiled giving him 6000 yen.

"To a new life," she said sardonically. Hisagi offered a polite smile and she hoped for the best.

X

Hisagi walked the streets of the Rukon with Kira, dressed as a peasant, at his side. His old friend risked a lot to keep hanging out with him even incognito. He put on a smile and wished that he actually felt some sort of gratitude. Really it felt fake though, a reminder of the life he could never return to, forced on him by a friend he no longer had anything in common with.

Kira made small talk and he nodded at what he figured were the appropriate points. He realized that Kira had stopped talking at some point and looked to the left following his gaze.

"Raise your head Wabisuke!" Kira roared and dove into the midst of the three Twelfth division members beating on some citizens. Hisagi watched with mild interest, Kira had clearly forgotten that he was supposed to be pretending to be a peasant. Kira was thrown flying and Hisagi belatedly remembered that nothing was preventing him from helping.

He drew the beaten sword that he'd managed to acquire and joined the fray. Without a proper zanpakuto and rusty as he was, he took several small slashes but still held his own well enough to let Kira regain his feet and the twelfth members ran.

Kira sheathed Wabisuke, helped one of the peasants to their feet then knelt by the other, murmuring soothing words as he began to use healing kido. After a few moments he stopped and bowed his head, closing his eyes for a long while. Hisagi was surprised by the depth of sadness he saw when Kira finally looked up again, brushed the dead peasant's eyes closed and rose.

He looked at Hisagi and a tear fell down his cheek.

"What took you so long?" he asked harshly.

"It wasn't my fight," he shrugged.

"They were just peasants!" Kira said aghast.

"They must have done something to deserve it. Either way it wasn't my problem."

Kira stared at him for a long moment, "Even if you aren't a Shinigami anymore how can you just stand by and do nothing?"

Hisagi shrugged not understanding why it mattered, "Guess I've just gotten used to it."

Kira watched him for another long moment before nodding and flash stepping away. Hisagi could have followed but he didn't particularly care, he was almost relieved to be rid of the reminder of his old life.

X

Sui-Feng had hoped for the best but as usual expected the worst. She was rarely disappointed and this was no exception.

It was only a few months before Kira came to her.

"There's something wrong with Hisagi," Kira said without preamble.

"Obviously, he was nested for five," she replied slipping into colloquial second division speech.

"I saw him watch a group of Rukongai citizens get beaten and he didn't care," Kira said.

"Nor do I," Sui-Feng sneered.

"I'm serious. I don't mean to get metaphysical but whatever made Hisagi, Hisagi...it never made it out of the nest."

"I know," Sui-Feng responded calmly. "It usually doesn't."


End file.
